Aurora claws back on Mirage to avoid elimination at BLAST Open Porto 2026

Aurora Gaming’s BLAST Open Porto campaign looked like it was heading for the exit door after a lopsided 0-2 loss to G2 Esports on August 26. Then the squad did what any team with its back against the wall does: it won the map that mattered most, taking Mirage to stay alive in the lower bracket of the $1.1 million tournament. How Aurora ended up in the lower bracket The opening match against G2 was not pretty. Aurora fell 5-13 on Inferno, a scoreline that suggests the team was barely competitive on one of CS2’s most storied maps. Anubis was closer at 12-16, but “closer” and “winning” are very different things. G2, ranked #9 globally heading into the event, flipped the script on a head-to-head rivalry that had tilted Aurora’s way earlier in 2026. Aurora had beaten G2 twice before this tournament. The loss dropped Aurora, ranked around #11 in the world, straight into the lower bracket. What’s at stake in Porto The BLAST Open Porto 2026 features 16 teams competing across a group stage currently running in Copenhagen through August 31. The playoffs move to Porto, Portugal, from September 4-6, where the surviving teams will fight over a first-place prize of $150,000. For Aurora’s roster ...